Amazing Discovery!
Large Volume Manuscript of Unpublished Drashos and Chiddushim Handwritten by Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen, Av Beis Din of Zülz
Germany, between c. 1800-1824
Sefer ‘Pnei Shlomo’ is a large and impressive handwritten volume containing chiddushim on the Talmud and drashas for Shabbos HaGadol and Shabbos Shuvah.
Authored by Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen, Av Beis Din of Zülz, author of ‘Pnei Shlomo’ and ‘Batei Nefesh’, son of the Gaon Maharzach, Av Beis Din of Fürth.
More than 80 pages of the volume are in Rabbi Shlomo’s distinctive handwriting, and about 50 additional pages are in a different handwriting. In total, there are more than 130 large pages containing the Torah of Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen, Av Beis Din of Zülz, which to the best of Zaidy’s knowledge have never been printed!
A rare phenomenon: The entire volume – containing a total of 136 leaves – is made entirely of special paper, in blue color!!
For several hundred years, it was customary for publishers and printers to send special copies printed on blue paper to ministers and wealthy individuals, and these sefarim became a symbol of an important and respected status. It is very rare to find manuscripts on blue paper!
An additional part of the work ‘Pnei Shlomo’ on the Talmud has been preserved in the Frankfurt Library but is written on regular (not blue) paper.
Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen, Av Beis Din of Zülz and the region, was among the great scholars of Ashkenaz and mechutan of the Aruch LaNer. He was born in 1769 to his father, the great sage Rabbi Meshulam Zalman HaKohen, Av Beis Din and Rosh Yeshiva of Fürth. At the young age of 24 he was appointed Av Beis Din of the Schnaittach community, and in 1799 he eulogized there the Vilna Gaon. In 1800 he was appointed Av Beis Din of the Mergentheim community in place of Rabbi Akiva Eiger who, for personal reasons, did not come to serve as the city’s Av Beis Din despite the community leaders’ request. In 1811, he was appointed Av Beis Din of the Zülz community and remained there until his passing in 1824.
He maintained a correspondence with the great scholars of the generation and wrote many works. His Torah commentary and some of his discourses were recently printed under the name ‘Batei Nefesh’.
His brother-in-law was Rabbi Eliezer HaLevi, a renowned activist and close associate of Sir Moses Montefiore, who studied under the Chasam Sofer and Maharam Banet. Rabbi HaLevi was the principal and director of Judith Lady Montefiore College in Ramsgate, the Jewish theological seminary founded by Sir Montefiore. It was Rabbi Shlomo who sent Rabbi HaLevi to study in the yeshivas of the above-mentioned Rabbanim. (Sefer HaZichronos of Judith Montefiore, London 1879, p. 275)
Germany, between c. 1800-1824
The entire volume contains 133 written pages, of which more than 80 are in Rabbi Shlomo’s handwriting, and about 50 in different handwriting. To the best of Zaidy’s knowledge, this manuscript has never been printed!
Size: 31.5 cm.
Condition: Good. Original binding with a fine pattern, with remnants of tying laces (binding is worn).
